Electronic learning books

Category Archives: Education

Most people today, don’t know the difference between a digital book and an ebook. In fact, many people think they are one and the same. They couldn’t be farther from the truth. They are entirely different species of the same animal.

Digital books

Digital books, sometimes also called electronic books or PDF books, are scanned, digital facsimiles of standard printed, published books. You can think of them as enhanced copies of the actual hard or paperback books we have come to know and love.

When we are talking about the digital version of newer publications, they are pretty much identical to the original. When talking about old or even ancient publication, they are much better than any original you would find on the shelf of your local library. Since they are facsimiles of the original printing, this really increases quality and helps overcome the problems of many older books, such as yellowed pages, stains, see-through or onion skin type paper, colored paper, brown inks, etc. These are scanned pages, not ‘copied’ pages, and the quality of print truly represents a better quality than the print of the original book.

The great majority of digital books come in PDF format, though Amazon offers a Kindle edition, Mobipocket offers the MOBI version, then there is the plain TEXT format, as well as many others.

Digital books are usually far less expensive than their hard or paperback counterparts, and there are hardly ever shipping costs, unless they are delivered on a CD (Compact Disk).

Ebooks

Ebooks are digital books too, but they were designed and written for the internet. Many, if not most ebooks were never officially “published” at all, unless you count posting something on the internet as publishing.

Most ebooks were meant to be written quickly, with little or no expenses except for possibly distribution. The majority are short, almost always less than 100 pages, usually under 50 pages. Some ebooks are literally slapped together in a matter of hours. Often they are little more than several short reports combined together.

Many ebooks are self-help books, or manuals of some kind, though there are some eBook works of history and fiction to be found if you look for them. More often than not, they have little or no literary value, their intentions being the distribution of facts, instructions and/or ideas.

Sometimes you may come across the eBook version of a hard or soft cover book. It will even be called the “ebook version” of whatever book. But if you look closer, you will find that this eBook version is almost always far fewer pages than the original. You may as well call the “ebook version” the “condensed version” of the book.

Though you will find many ebooks in PDF format, much like digital books, but many come as various generic interactive applications. But don’t let the initial attraction of interaction fool you. Even if this sounds like high tech education at first, you will find that there is not much to the promise of interaction. It just disguises the fact that these books are short, technically no more than a few pages, with little to no real practical, and even less academic value.

Last but not least, ebooks are often free or cheap, though you will occasionally find some specialty instruction “programs” costing hundred of dollars.

Writing ebooks and selling them online is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make money online. But making money is just one of the surprising reasons to write them.

The reason they are surprising is that most writers do not realize how powerful they are. Without further delay, here are 7 more reasons why you should get started and write an ebook, starting today:

1. Speed to Market
If you have ever thought about writing a book and getting it published, then you probably know it takes over a year and sometimes two just to go from idea to finally seeing your book in the bookstore.

It took me 3 years to write my first print book and get it published. Waiting years to publish your words is just a waste of time.

It only takes me a few hours of work to brainstorm, write and publish one (between 12 and 24 hours of effort) and a few days to set up your website.

You can come up with an idea, immediately start writing and publish your e-book for sales in a few weekends. Once you get the hang of it, you can even write, publish and make your first sale in as little as a weekend.

2. Become an Instant Expert
When you publish an eBook in your niche, you instantly become an expert in the eyes of everyone else in that niche. You literally can go from a casual fan of your passion to the go-to resource and expert on that topic. I have seen it happen dozens of times to ordinary people like you and me.

Plus, when you publish, you immediately will be able to start saying “Author of…” in all communication. People look up to authors and they go to them for expert advice. When you write it and publish it, you will become a celebrity in your own niche.

3. Profit While You Sleep
So you get instant celebrity status, but with your own product you also get a salesperson. A what?

I am talking about your website that you set up to sell ebooks. Once you publish, you will sell your product through a real simple website that tells people about your product and why they need it to help them solve their problem or achieve success in the topic you wrote about.

That website is up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It operates like your virtual salesperson, selling your products and services and telling everyone how great you are.

4. Huge Profit Margins
And speaking of making money online by selling ebooks, not only can you make money while you sleep, but you can keep a lot of the money as well. I am talking of course about profit margin – the difference between what you sell something for and what it costs to make.

Most companies have anywhere from a 15 to a 30 percent gross margin. Some lucky industries have upwards of a 50 gross margin, which means for every dollar in sale, they keep 50 cents.

They have close to a 95 percent margin or higher. Think about that for a moment because there is no product around that has that kind of profit margin.

That is the beauty of having no inventory and only offering a digitally downloadable products. Thanks to that high profit margin, you need to sell fewer units in order to make a lot of money online versus selling any other kind of product.

5. Leverage Your eBook Content
Once your eBook is written and published, you can reuse the content for other purposes. You can take the content and record yourself reading it and now you have an audio book that you can sell. You can pull out the best parts and create a special report as a giveaway product to get people to sign up at your website.

This is called a lead generator.

You can add some additional materials to your ebooks, including CDs and a manual and now you a high-priced home-study course on your hands. And these ideas are just the beginning of what you can do by leveraging your writing and transforming that content into additional products.

6. Lead Generator for Your Business
When you write an eBook in a niche, you already know you become an expert in that niche. People doing a search on Google will come across your name when they are looking for help. When they buy and read what you have to say, they will get the help or information they need.

However, sometimes people need more help and that is an opportunity to make even more money…and help people in the process.

Authors who work at it can branch out and start coaching clients or create a membership site where people will pay you every month to get additional insights, information, secrets and tactics about your niche.

If you think you have a small niche or some little topic, think again. There are membership sites with paying customers in just about every niche you can imagine.

If there is not a paid membership site in your niche, then you have the golden opportunity to start one. At minimum, you can start coaching people for a lot of money, definitely more than you are earning at your day job.

7. eBook Writing is Easy
Lastly, you should realize that writing your first draft is real easy, especially when you write your first one. Since they can be short – anywhere between 40 to 100 double-spaced pages – you can write them in a few days if you really wanted to.

Once you learn how to write ebooks, you can simply repeat the process over and over again. In fact, there are just 7 simple steps that you have to follow.

Now that you know the best reasons to write an ebook, I would like to invite you to get your Free Instant Access to the 7 Ebook Writing Secrets Email Course.

At a writers/publishers group meeting the speaker said that fiction eBooks are outselling print books 30:1 and nonfiction eBooks are outselling print books 5:1.

I was encouraged by these numbers because when I read articles I get through my Google alerts on “eBooks” I hadn’t seen those numbers recently. One of her main sources is Book Industry Study Group (BISG.org).

Since eBooks are still big sellers, I encourage you to move forward with your goal to write and publish an eBook. (You can always do a print book later.) I’d like to help you discover where you are in the process and what kind of help you need to complete your book or eBook.

1. You have an idea for an eBook. This is a great place to start. Your NEXT STEP might be to review your goal for writing your eBook and determine your ideal reader and why they would buy your eBook.

2. You have some notes collected and possibly an outline. Some first time authors get stuck at this point because they’re unfamiliar with the process of writing an eBook. So a good NEXT STEP would be to review your table of contents to make sure it meets both your goal and your readers’ goal. Then start filling in your ideas into each chapter.

3. You’ve started writing your eBook and have stumbled on writer’s block or writer’s procrastination or writer’s lack of time! Your NEXT STEP could be to schedule time in your calendar for writing and make it as important as any other appointments. You might also get some accountability with a friend, another writer, or a writing coach.

4. You’ve finished writing your eBook, but know it could be cleaner and tighter. A great NEXT STEP would be to have several people in your “ideal reader” market read and critique your eBook. Then the NEXT STEP would be to get a professional edit.

5. Your eBook is written, critiqued, edited, and you’re ready to publish. Your NEXT STEP is to get a cover designed and your interior formatted and converted to an eBook. Then have it uploaded to Amazon and other book selling sites.

6. Your book has just been accepted by Amazon Kindle. Your crucial NEXT STEP is to start marketing and promoting your eBook like crazy! You can promote it online through social media, YouTube, and emails as well as offline through events, media, and networking.

I’ve suggested a enough NEXT STEPs to take you from idea to Amazon! These ideas should ease your journey to completing your eBook. It’s an amazing feeling when you see your eBook on Amazon for the first time, and an even more amazing feeling when you get your first sale!

A lot of online business owners, bloggers and information marketers and make good money selling eBooks – the electronic version of the traditional, physical book. You most likely already know this but where do you start if you are considering writing an eBook yourself.

Build Trust With Your Audience

People buy eBooks from bloggers and online business owners they trust and respect. Provided that you develop a solid relationship with your audience first, and provide them lots of useful, free value, you will have an audience that will be happy to pay you for more information that helps solves a problem in their lives.

Ask Your Audience What They Want

You can do this through your blog, a survey or via email. This works well because it you to put the power of a number of minds to work for you, and ensures you will have people interested in buying your eBook when you’ve written it.

Answer The Burning Question

Your eBook needs to answer a burning question. “How to avoid (subject title)”, filling in the subject title with something that is applicable to your niche. For example, how to avoid “putting on weight over Christmas” or “cheating on my diet” are all great ideas if you’re in the weight loss niche.

Leverage The Work Of Others

Let successful writers do all the work for you. Have a look at a magazine stand, a book shop or library. Look for titles that relate to your blog or online business, modify the title but keep the topic of the book or magazine, and start writing your eBook.

Surf Online Groups And Communities

Forums, chat rooms and social media sites are great places to look for information and inspiration. Type “your niche forum” into Google, (replacing “your niche” with the subject of your blog or website) and see what your prospective audience are talking about and what problems or interests that they have.

What Problem Can Your eBook Solve Quickly?

Think about what problems you can solve in your marketplace in a short period of time. eBooks that guarantee results in 7, 14, 21 or 30 days sell extremely well.

What Have You Recently Achieved?

Your eBook can be about something you recently did in your business. Perhaps you have just set up an online business? Have you finally got your dog house trained? If you’re looking for ideas to write an eBook about what your prospective customers need you often don’t need to look any further than yourself!

It is true that a host of different action paths can be followed to build a business on online but if you choose to build an eBook empire you might hit on a method that gives you long-term income that, after awhile, begins to give you access to an automatic system of continuous growth and profits.

Information technology is chosen as a suggested topic area because it offers you a vast area of constant, current, and future growth since the field is expanding rapidly and new information is being asked for by a growing number of job-seekers.

The online eBook business does not require you to maintain an inventory since the product is a single digital object located on a website. Your overhead costs are much lower than a traditional book publisher and you are therefore able to provide an indefinite supply of downloads to your customers at any time of the day with no additional costs to you.

It is important to realize that the online audience is closer to everyday conversation then to college-level rules which means you don’t need not be a professional writer for academic consumption or a writer who publishes novels.

Of course, your writing skills are not going to be questioned since you can outsource all of your required material to well-established writers who will be eager to generate copy meeting your specifications at a reasonable and low-range of prices.

If you are wondering what it means to assemble and promote an empire of eBooks, you can imagine a situation whereby you start with a topic you have a deep passion for and you begin with producing one digital copy.

Then, you gradually branch out with the result of branding yourself as you go from product-to product until your demographic needs are well established.

It’s not a matter of writing one guide that provides information on database planning. Instead, Your writing includes one about conducting a feasibility study, another on requirements analysis, one on best record layout strategies, and so forth.

As you drill down into smaller niche ideas, you will discover that you are developing more selling opportunities which gives you a better chance for profits.

To develop an eBook, you will find that a step-by-step process exists that starts with discovering your topic-niche and completes itself when you discover the keys to firmly establishing a valid affiliate program. Your eBooks can be launched online using many low-cost tools and some that are free.

To continue to grow your empire and sustain your online presence, you will need to add building blocks with follow-up product ideas including a constant development of virtual sales help through your affiliate army of others wanting to profit from your products.

To ensure that you promote your reputation in the technical community, it will require that you commit some of your time and energy in either outsourcing your written IT-knowledge needs or writing the material yourself, using your gathered experience.